Rev Ops: There's a role for everyone.

If you've been eyeing a career in Revenue Operations then this is your chance!

RevOps is an innovative field offering untapped potential for individuals seeking to jumpstart their careers. Don't be intimidated, this blog is here to help demystify the basics for you.

Revenue Operations gives aspiring professionals from all sorts of backgrounds and experience levels from a Sales Developer Rep, to Business Analyst the opportunity to make their mark in an area that is still very much a greenfield site is exciting.

With its unique blend of strategy, analytics, technology and process optimisation, RevOps allows people with any level of knowledge to find ways to contribute in meaningful ways both personally and professionally. There’s truly something for everyone when it comes to Revenue Operations, and it's honestly a place I don't think quite compares to other departments.

Introducing RevOps – What You Need to Know about Revenue Operations

In today’s world, what is revenue operations?

Well, I asked AI to build a picture of what Revenue Operations look like and I'm very happy with the result to be honest.

I feel it captures the very essence of Revenue Operations. And with a picture as clear as this who needs the rest of this article?

.... Well unless you can decode a world of coloured blocks, people with no faces and oddly bent arms (don't get me started on the person with a graph as their face) I feel we can safely carry on.

Revenue Operations - What do you need to know and why is it important?

It seems like something that has only recently exploded in Europe but it's pretty well established now in The United States. But even in the United States there are many misconceptions about what Revenue Operations is and whether it's just Sales or Marketing Operations. In reality, its both combined and much more.

Revenue Operations is the management of Operations from Marketing through the entire life cycle of your customer.

Revenue operations are the key to ensuring sales, marketing & customer success... well success and according to Sirius Decision research, a company with an established Revenue Operations Team has an overall 15% higher profitability and 19% better growth.

Aims and Goals

Its aim is to improve cost efficiency, automate technologies and improve Revenue Strategies all with the main outcome in mind of building predictable business growth, increasing sales and marketing effectiveness, reducing customer churn and improving the customer lifetime value.

Having this holistic and complete ownership of these things allows for sales leaders, Sales Enablement teams, Marketing Operations, Customer Success and your Revenue technology and analytical teams to all work to one strategy in a collaborative and aligned way.

Alignment is just one part of the story though. Managing Sales Process and Marketing Strategy takes good data, an understanding of Data Management, sales cycles and marketing funnels and an understanding of what really makes customers happy.

Ultimately, your role here is to make more customers buy your products and existing customers to grow in their life (improving the Net Dollar Retention also known as NDR) You will be responsible for the forecasts within all of these areas and ensuring hold each team to account on what they have generated each quarter or year.

The Benefits of Working in RevOps – Why is Revenue Operations Important

Working in RevOps is a great way to ensure that your business operates efficiently and generates maximum profits.

The mixed-discipline approach provides a unique opportunity for you to expand your technical horizons and improve your overall business acumen.

What about RevOps can provide you with all the resources and know-how to be successful in this field, from tackling implementation challenges to attaining strategic objectives. With this support, you’ll be able to tackle some of the toughest obstacles in business operations, transforming these into efficiencies that streamline workflows while delivering increased value.

Additionally, a more profitable organization translates into greater opportunities and future growth potential. Benefiting from this higher return on investment and capitalising on improvements require an understanding of revenue operations – something I hope this article and Podcast help with.

Exploring the Different Roles in RevOps – From Operational to Creative

RevOps is an increasingly important and exciting field of work. It combines both operational nuance and creative innovation. In a RevOps role, you could find yourself picking apart customer service data to isolate areas in need of improvement or developing marketing campaigns to boost leads and sales.

Across the spectrum, there are countless opportunities to flex your skillset and push boundaries. Roles in RevOps span from giving technical support to cooperating with Sales teams to create customer-friendly experiences and reducing customer churn. Then again, you could be working on creative strategies for outreach and promotion which aim to amplify brand awareness.

Ultimately, one of the most promising things about a career in Revenue Operations is that it leaves room for forward-thinking and variety. It's a space where your ideas can be checked and challenged - but also validated if they prove successful in practice.

Often the Rev Ops teams are small but in the established larger enterprises they are well structured covering all areas of the Go-To-Market operations. A fully built-out team could contain a combination of the below roles but in reality, Rev Ops teams are just built differently wherever you go and so will have elements of all of these things, often in single roles.

Leadership:

The Revenue Operations leadership is responsible for setting the revenue operations team structure and for overseeing and managing all aspects of revenue operations within an organization.

Their primary responsibilities include:

Strategy

Developing and executing the revenue operations strategy to drive revenue growth, improve sales efficiency, and enhance customer experience.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Collaborating with sales, marketing, customer success, and finance teams to align revenue operations processes and strategies.

Process Improvement

Identifying and implementing process improvements to increase revenue and efficiency, such as optimizing lead generation, deal management, and renewal processes.

Technology Management

Managing revenue technology stack and ensuring the systems are properly integrated, maintained, and optimized to support revenue operations.

Analytics and Reporting

Establish metrics, dashboards, and reports to measure and analyze revenue performance, identify trends and insights, and provide actionable recommendations to improve revenue growth.

Leadership and Management

Leading and managing the revenue operations team, setting goals and objectives, providing guidance and support, and ensuring the team is meeting its goals and driving revenue growth.

Typical Revenue Operations leadership roles are:

S/VP of Revenue Operations: Leads the team and oversees all revenue operations functions often reporting to a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)

Head Of Revenue Operations / Revenue Operations Manager or Director: Supports the VP or in the absence of a VP manages the team and day-to-day operations

Sales Operations:

Sales Operations department or Sales Ops, is a pretty well-known role and a well-established list of responsibilities already, some of these do change a little as we move into RevOps but ultimately if you work in sales ops today, it won't be hugely different.

The Sales Operations team will be responsible primarily for the overall sales organisation and will manage the territory design, review the Sales Cycle, introduce and manage Sales tools, and provide the sales training that's needed for sales teams to ramp quickly and deliver the required deals to hit company targets.

Typical Sales Operations roles are:

Operations Manager or Director: Supports the leadership in managing the sales operations function and day-to-day operations

Sales Operations Analyst: Supports the sales team by analyzing data and providing insights to improve sales processes and performance

Enablement Specialist: Develops and delivers training and resources to help the sales team sell more effectively

Salesforce/Hubspot Administrator: Manages the company's CRM system to ensure data accuracy and provide sales reporting and analytics

Customer Success Operations:

Customer Success Operations (CS Ops) is responsible for optimising the customer success teams processes and technology to improve customer satisfaction and retention.

They provide support for customer onboarding, enablement, and adoption, and manage customer success teams' metrics and reporting. They are ultimately there to help identify ways to improve the retention and growth of existing customers. Understanding the customer journey and how they use the product for the potential for cross-sells or better product utilisation. This is all to drive value and improve the customer experience and customer lifetime value.

Typical Customer Success Operations Roles are:

Operations Manager or Director: Supports the leadership in managing the customer success operations function and day-to-day operations

Operations Analyst: Supports the customer success team by analyzing data and providing insights to improve customer satisfaction and retention

Enablement Specialist: Develops and delivers training and resources to help the customer success team deliver better customer experiences

Marketing Operations

Marketing Operations (MOps or Marketing Ops) is responsible for optimising and streamlining marketing processes and technology. They aim to improve marketing performance and achieve marketing objectives.

Marketing Ops professionals work closely with marketing teams to identify areas for process improvement, implement best practices, and leverage marketing technology to increase efficiency and effectiveness. They manage marketing automation platforms, maintain marketing databases, and analyze data to provide insights and recommendations on marketing performance.

Marketing Ops is also responsible for developing and executing marketing plans, creating marketing collateral, and managing budgets.

Overall, Marketing Ops plays a critical role in supporting marketing teams in achieving their goals and driving revenue growth.

Typical Marketing Operations roles are:

Operations Manager or Director: Supports the leadership in managing the marketing operations function and day-to-day operations

Operations Analyst: Supports the marketing team by analyzing data and providing insights to improve marketing performance and ROI

Automation Specialist: Manages the company's marketing automation platform to execute campaigns and track performance

Deal Desk

Deal Desk is responsible for managing complex sales deals by analysing deal terms, providing pricing guidance, and ensuring consistency in pricing and discounting.

Deal Desk teams work closely with sales, finance, and legal teams to identify and mitigate risks, streamline deal approvals, and ensure deals are structured by company policies and revenue goals.

Their goal is to help sales teams close deals more effectively and efficiently while maximizing revenue and profitability.

Typical Deal Desk roles are:

Deal Desk Manager or Director: Supports the leadership in managing the deal desk function and day-to-day operations

Deal Desk Analyst: Supports the sales team in deal negotiations by analyzing deal terms and providing guidance on pricing and discounting

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI) within a RevOps team is responsible for providing insights into business performance through data analysis, dashboards, and reporting.

BI analysts work to develop and maintain data pipelines and systems that support business intelligence initiatives across the customer journey. They collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify KPIs, metrics, and reports to measure business performance and identify trends and insights to drive revenue growth. Their insights and recommendations help inform strategic decision-making across the organization.

Typical Business Intelligence roles are:

Business Intelligence Manager or Director: Supports the leadership in managing the business intelligence function and day-to-day operations

Business Intelligence Analyst: Develops and maintains dashboards and reports to provide insights on business performance and trends

Business Intelligence Developer: Designs and builds data pipelines and systems to support business intelligence initiatives

Revenue Technology

Revenue Technology is responsible for managing and optimizing revenue-related technology systems and tools within a RevOps team.

This includes selecting, implementing, and integrating revenue technology solutions, such as CRM, marketing automation, and sales enablement platforms, to improve sales efficiency, streamline processes, and enhance customer experience.

Revenue Technology professionals also manage and maintain revenue technology systems, provide technical support, and ensure data accuracy and integrity to support revenue operations as well as identify new tools for further improvements.

Typical Revenue Technology roles are:

Revenue Technology Manager or Manager: Supports the VP in managing the revenue technology function and day-to-day operations.

Revenue Technology Analyst: Supports the revenue operations team by managing and maintaining revenue technology systems and tools

Demystifying the RevOps Processes and Technologies – Streamlining Your Workflows

The Revenue Operations process can be demystified to give you maximum efficiency and productivity when it comes to streamlining your workflow.

Instead of wading through an overwhelming amount of technology based on out-of-date strategies and processes, you can start by assessing your sales journey and then mapping into the automated systems that leave tedious tasks completely in the dust.

By utilising a comprehensive Revenue Operations model, you'll never find yourself getting stuck in antiquated procedures again - Unless you buy a new business in which it starts all over again...

Finding Success with RevOps - Tips for Maximizing Results

Success in a Revenue Operations team means trusting your Emotional Intelligence just as much if not more than your IQ.

An openness to collaboration with a focus on people, then on the processes for how they are completing the work and then lastly technology has been my experience of how to run a successful RevOps team.

Empathy keeps you in tune with the customer's needs and helps you build an understanding of what a team needs.

Openness helps break down silos between divisions while Collaboration encourages teamwork and sharing across departments. The focus on people creates flexibility, as employees are key resources and processes, establishing structure without stifling creativity.

Data and Technology must be managed well giving you the insight that could take your business to new heights.

So when looking at maximizing results with RevOps remember to put your people first act with Openness and look to collaborate with the teams you work with. Put process before Tech and Data – success will follow!

Looking into the Future of RevOps - Scaling Your Business with Ease and Efficiency

RevOps is set to transform how businesses scale and operate. As processes become automated and more efficient, managers will be freed from mundane tasks and empowered to focus on creative problem-solving. Meanwhile, employees will enjoy enhanced accuracy when reporting performance due to streamlined workflows and integrated data.

Ultimately, RevOps creates a win-win scenario by allowing businesses to tweak their operations for improved efficiency without reducing quality or reliability. An investment in onboarding future-ready RevOps technology can make all the difference in the world of scaling up faster while still staying agile.

It's an exciting time to be a part of RevOps, the foundations are still being laid and there is a huge opportunity for both individual's career growth and the chance to be a key part of improving company performance. It really is something to be excited about.

Subscribe to this blog for more insights into this growing field – as well as listen to my podcast 'What about RevOps?' for peoples RevOps journeys